"Do the Right thing, or else'

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, November 4, 1997

1997-11-04 04:00:00 PDT NEW JERSEY -- CHRISTIE WHITMAN, who stands for re-election Tuesday as governor of New Jersey, has been learning a lesson that many Republican politicians have had to learn:

What the so-called conservative right giveth, it can taketh away.

Whitman was swept into office in 1993 by an enthusiastic wave of Republicans who were only too happy to place their special interests under one "big tent." Liberal, moderate or extreme right, they worked hard and spent plenty to oust the incumbent Democratic governor, Jim Florio.

Four years later, as Whitman fights for re-election, the big tent is but a memory. Fiscal conservatives and gun owners have turned their backs on her because she tinkered with the state's pension system to the tune of $2.75 billion and has not actively hacked away at New Jersey's gun control laws.

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Outraged by Whitman's veto of a state ban on some late-term abortions, the governor's former "pro-life" pals are out to destroy her by encouraging like-minded Republicans to support third-party candidates.

"We are informing our voters that there are alternatives to the major party candidates. This election is about sending a clear message."

Ralph Reed, the "family values" guru-turned Republican consultant, knows all about those kinds of messages. He sees Whitman's troubles from the classic conservative right perspective: Our way is the only way.

The former executive director of the Christian Coalition, Reed said that Whitman was "becoming a model of how not to be a winning Republican, primarily because she has not reached out to build bridges to the social conservatives."

Build bridges?

That is an interesting euphemism for refusing to kowtow to the often extreme agenda of the rightest of the Right.

Whitman's late-term abortion ban veto is a great example. She rejected it not because she is unconditionally pro-choice, but because the legislation lacked one element she believes is important.

Rewriting the bill herself, Whitman added a humane

"except."

"You don't perform this kind of abortion," she said,

"except if the life or health, long-term physical health, of the mother is at stake."

Imagine. Trying to protect the life or long-range health of women. How radical can you get?

The Times story noted that Whitman's "moderate Republican positions reflect what pollsters describe as the views of most New Jersey voters."

But the views of most voters have never counted for much among the rightest of the Right.

In 1993, they worked and spent for Whitman. This year, they want to send her a clear message: She hasn't